Fire swept through a third-floor apartment on Chicago's North Side early Sunday, killing six children and injuring their mother and three siblings, authorities said. Candles may have caused the fire, officials said. Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco confirmed reports from neighbors that the family had been without electricity for at least a month and had been relying on candles for light. "What do you say?" Orozco said. "There's nothing you can say. It's been the worst in a long time. The only thing you can do is just pray for these poor people." The three-bedroom apartment in the Rogers Park neighborhood had no smoke detectors, he said. ... http://abcnews.go.com

Democrats enter the fall campaign with a clear edge in the high-stakes fight for control of the U.S. Congress, riding a wave of momentum that has them positioned to retake the U.S. House of Representatives and make significant gains in the Senate. President George W. Bush's low approval ratings and public dissatisfaction with the Iraq war, gas prices and the country's direction threaten Republican leadership in Congress and put Democrats within reach of victory on November 7, analysts said. "I don't think the question any longer is can Democrats win control of Congress, it's can Republicans do anything to stop it?" said Amy Walter, House analyst for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report newsletter. "All the factors and issues are pushing so strongly against Republicans." ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2389642

Service industries in the U.S. expanded last month at the second-slowest pace in almost a year as home sales and construction slowed, a private report this week is expected to show. A report Sept. 6 from the Institute for Supply Management is expected to show its non-manufacturing index, which covers about 88 percent of the economy, registered a reading of 55.1 last month, inching up from a figure of 54.8 in July that was the lowest since September 2005, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Mounting evidence that growth is slowing confirms Federal Reserve forecasts that inflation will taper off, allowing the central bank to refrain from raising interest rates for the rest of the year. Job gains and income growth will hold up consumer spending, allaying concerns the economy would experience a deeper slump. ...http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a8nugz9k.AJM&refer=worldwide_news

Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said Saturday that U.S. foreign policy triggers terrorism and violence in the world, but American Muslims can play a key role in promoting peace and security. In his first public appearances during a nearly two-week visit to the United States, Khatami spoke twice in the Chicago area. He is the most senior Iranian official to visit the United States since Islamic fundamentalists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held Americans hostage for 444 days. "As America claims to be fighting terrorism, it implements policies that cause the intensification of terrorism and institutionalized violence," Khatami said at the Islamic Society of North America's 43rd annual convention. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2388955

Three people were shot to death and two others were wounded Saturday in what authorities say was a targeted attack at an apartment. Authorities responding to reports of gunfire around 4:30 a.m. in the city's Vailsburg section discovered the three dead in the apartment, which was engulfed in flames. They had been shot multiple times. Killed were Sandra Bellush, 42, a tenant in the apartment; Brielle Simpkins, 15, of Elizabeth; and Eric Jackson, 19, of Newark. Authorities also found a 17-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man at the building, but it was not clear if they were in the apartment. They were identified only as Newark residents. ...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2388912

An Army investigator has recommended that four soldiers accused of murder in a raid in Iraq should face the death penalty if convicted, according to a report obtained Saturday by The Associated Press. Lt. Col. James P. Daniel Jr. concluded that the slayings were premeditated and warranted the death sentence based on evidence he heard at an August hearing. The case will now be forwarded to Army officials, who will decide whether Daniel's recommendation should be followed. The soldiers, all from the Fort Campbell, Kentucky-based 101st Airborne Division's 187th Infantry Regiment, are accused of killing three Iraqi men taken from a house May 9 on a marshy island outside Samarra, about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard, Spc. William B. Hunsaker, Pfc. Corey R. Clagett and Spc. Juston R. Graber have claimed they were ordered to "kill all military age males" during the raid on the island. According to statements from some of the soldiers, they were told ...http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/09/02/soldiers.charged.ap/index.html?section=cnn_us